It is organized by the Indo Cine Appreciation Forum (ICAF) and few sponsors which include media houses and film production houses and their number has been steadily increasing over the years.

This year it began yesterday and has been extended to 10 days this time from the usual 7 days - testimony to the participation from countries around the world. It started off last evening, 14th December, with biggies from the Industry inaugurating it at the Pilot Theater, newly restored by Pyramid Saimira group, that has a history of screening classics like Benhur and Ten Commandments and its large 70mm louvered screen being its specialty. Legendary director K. Balachander was the chief guest and stars like Khushboo and Prakash Raj decked the already shining stage and spilled their experiences at various Film Festivals they attended. However, contrary to convention, the festival started ahead of the Inaugural event in the morning itself at the three venues - Woodlands Theater complex, again a part of the Pyramid Saimira group, Pilot Theater and South Indian Film Chamber Theater.

The highlight had to be the inaugural film and more often than not it is the one that gives everyone the feel of things to come. This time it was the German film Das Leben Der Anderen aka The Lives of Others directed by Florian Henckel, the winner of the Best Foreign Language Oscar, and has stellar performances by Ulrich Mühe, Martina Gedeck, Sebastian Koch, and Ulrich Tukur.

The story is set in 1983 East Germany, which was under communist regime, and there were the Stasis German secret police whose duty was to constantly survey all those whom they suspected were working against the communist regime, which was slowly working towards its goal of socialism. Their prime suspects were artistes and writers who put up plays that question the regime as a whole. One such writer, Stasi Gerd Weisler, who is passionate about the socialist cause, is asked to monitor a screenwriter Dreyman, whose house is completely wired in his absence. Weisler is given a proxy code name Agent HGW XX/7. This writer slowly begins to conspire against the government by writing an article about the happenings inside the state and having it published in a popular West German magazine, The Speigel. He is driven to do this after his good friend and theater director Jerska is denied any work at the theater and is driven to suicide only a few days after he attends Dreyman's birthday party leaving him a composition titled 'Sonata for a Good Man'. Weisler who is constantly monitoring the happenings and preparing reports slowly gets deeply involved with the happenings in the Dreyman household and his love affair with popular theater actress Christa-Maria. Their travails and the hardships they are put through by the top officials in the regime and the statistics Dreyman begins to expose in his article for the magazine affects Weisler deeply and he slowly begins to hide crucial information from his superiors in his reports to them.

This eventually leads to his superiors questioning Christa-Maria who is caught purchasing drugs illegally from her dentist and interrogated about Dreyman’s conspiracy and his writings and is forced to submission. What leads to a nostalgic and emotional ending has to be seen to be believed. Seldom does one come across such movies that can be instantly termed classics. All those movie geeks who haven’t watched this masterpiece yet can rent a copy at the nearest DVD store. This is one movie that makes for fulfilling movie-watching experience.

Keep track of this round up as we update you on the happenings on a day-to-day basis. For the impatient rest living in and around Chennai, rush to Pilot Theater and register for the fest that has more than hundred movies being screened in a span of 10 days all this for a paltry sum of Rs.500. It will be an enlightening experience for you as most of the movies you will never get to watch on the big screen.